I also have a 3100 Joules Surge Protector. The AVR is only 525 Joules.

I want to buy a battery backup.
I need to know a couple things:
1) What size (VA / Watt) UPS do I need? I'm not concerned with staying on long after loss of power, just long enough to shut down.

2) Should I utilize all three components? (AVR, UPS, Surge Protector) I was thinking of plugging the AVR into the wall, the UPS into that, then the surge protector into the UPS. Then my PC and Monitor into the Surge protector. I guess my concern is the limited amount of joules the AVR and UPS can handle. What is the best solution / combination? Please give the order in which they should be hooked up.

I know that might be overkill, but with over 2k invested, I'd rather not have to worry. Oh BTW, I'm on a budget. I'd like to stay under $150 USD, but will go up to $200 if its in my best interest.

I would plug the UPS into the surge protector and call it good. I've been using cheap surge protectors and nothing else for quite a number of years now and haven't had an incident.

When you're buying a UPS just make sure it's rated to run the watts of your power supply and I think you'll be fine. You should test it out once you get it to make sure it can handle the load, and how long it can remain powered.

Check the spec of the UPS, as they can do surge protection and voltage regulation too. You might not need to get those separately.

I don't see a big need for an AVR. Most computer power supplies are pretty much universal input these days (100V-240V) so they really don't care what goes in. Then again at that price it doesn't break the bank either.

The surge protector should go closest to the wall, as it will then protect everything after it. If you do go for the AVR, I'd put that next and have the UPS at the end. You want to minimise any losses after the UPS to maximise its running ability.

Rating of the UPS: the VA figure is a bit of marketing misdirection for bigger numbers. Look carefully in the specs for their true power rating in W. This is typically lower than the VA rating. Get a UPS with a W rating bigger than your predicted power usage - this could be difficult to estimate. Don't forget to include any peripherals, like the monitor and any networking bits if you need or want to keep that up too.

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I'd echo what popo says. UPS manufacturers quote VA and Volts times Amps rarely equal Watts when you are dealing with AC systems. Assuming your maximum power draw is 800W (sorry, but I don't know how much juice those ATI cards or your monitor suck up) then personally I'd opt for a 1200VA UPS.

I'd also not use the surge protector as the UPS does that for you. The surge protector could be usefully employed elsewhere in the home to protect other kit.

Well then looks like 800w+ is gonna be the ticket. That will put me right at $200. Not too bad, as it may pay off in the long run.

As for ATI's cards, they are power hogs. They use a lot more than nvidia cards, but as of right now, ATI is on top of the market as far as benchmarks go. So I went with them. Plus, they cost less than an equivalent nvidia card.

Anything to help out. It's a good thing that you pointed that out. I'll def. use that. I also forgot about the donations through PayPal. I remember seing all that when I first came to Camera Labs, but forgot about it. Money is tight right now, with me buying a new pc and everything to go with it, but I will def. get around to the donation.

I encourage everyone to donate. Camera Labs is one of the best online communities I have seen thus far, IMHO. And with all the money we put out on equipment, whats a few extra bills hurt towards this site?

The bad part about my new PC is my budget was originally $1200, but I blew that away by over 1k so far.

Donations are of course always appreciated, but the great thing about shopping through our partner stores is you guys get things you were already going to buy at the same price as normal, but we still get a small referral fee - so it works as a win-win! And remember it works for anything, books, CDs, even iTunes downloads!